


A Break to Pradise

by orphan_account



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Family Bonding, Food, Found Family, Gen, M/M, Malta, POV Nile Freeman, Post-Canon, Team Bonding, also i made nile a lesbian because i could, anti-kinnie sentiments, crash course on maltese history too lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26476303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After Booker's exile, they all agree they need a break. Joe and Nicky suggest they go to Malta.
Relationships: Andromache of Scythia & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova & Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 1
Kudos: 74





	A Break to Pradise

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gonna be completely honest, I wrote this so I could hype up Maltese food as a Maltese diaspora and nothing else (also yes I may be diaspora but I'm far more Maltese than others writing TOG Malta fics so I'm already leauges ahead). This fic also includes Fun Histroical Maltese facts.

After leaving England and everything that they had to go through, they’d decided they’d needed to take a short break. 

It had been Nicky and Joe’s idea to go to Malta.

If Nile were being honest, she hadn’t been completely familiar with the country. Her knowledge pretty much started and ended with the dog breed. She wasn’t even sure if the dogs even came from Malta in the first place. 

The country itself was small but beautiful. They’d spent most of the time on the mainland, although they had plans to go up to Gozo for a day. Nicky and Joe seemed exhilarated to be there. 

They’d left the safe house they had there, which only made Nile wonder exactly how many safe houses they had, to get some lunch. Nicky had expressed how the country’s food was delicious and she had to try it. 

That was how they’d ended up at a restaurant and Nicky and Joe ordering food for them. She let them pick out what she’d eat since she couldn’t even begin to read the menu. She’d almost ordered something called ‘fenek’ until Nicky had told her it was rabbit. 

The waiter set down a plate for the table. They looked like some kind of pastry thing in an oval shape, the ends pulled out. She picked one up and took a bite. She was met with the taste of the crunchy pastry and smooth ricotta. 

“What is this?” 

“Pastizzi, very popular,” Nicky said picking up his own and taking a bite. “And delicious. I hope you like ricotta, I ordered you this pasta that uses ricotta as a sauce.”

“Ricotta?”

“Yes. Very delicious. Andy’s getting this baked pasta.”

She grinned. “You’re the best, I love that shit.”

“Me and Joe are just getting ravjul, it was between that and tat-tarja for me. Ravjul is like ravioli in Italy but the pieces are bigger and the sauce is different.”

“And it’s much better than that Italian stuff,” Joe added with a smirk.

Nicky gave a look that looked like he was legitimately offended but Nile could never tell with these two. “Take that back!”

“Sorry, sabiħ but it is.” 

She couldn’t hold back her snort. “I hope the food is as good as you say. And if my pasta is half as good as this,” she picked up another pastizzi, “then I think it’s gonna be good.”

The waiter set down their food, Nicky replying with “grazzi” and a smile. 

The food as promised was delicious. Nile had always liked pasta although she mostly got it from the Olive Garden (something she guessed she shouldn’t bring up around Nicky) or made it herself. Something about authentic food made it more delicious. 

Something Nile had noticed quickly as they walked around the city was that both Nicky and Joe spoke the language fluently. She wasn’t exactly surprised they did since they seemed to have multiple languages up their sleeves. Although, sometimes when she listened to them, for a moment she thought they were slipping between languages. 

“Why is the language like that?” Nile asked lightly as they walked to a safe house they had. They had taken a cab from Valetta to Luqa. 

“Like what?” Andy asked as Nicky and Joe conversed ahead of them.

“At first I thought they were speaking Italian, then Arabic but then they started speaking it to locals.”

They seemed to hear them and Nicky smiled. “It has pieces Italian and Arabic in it, French and English too. It’s its own language, just a lot of influence.” Nicky explained. 

She raised a brow. “How?”

“Colonialism, what else?” 

Oh, right.

“We came down here for the first time when it was still primarily Arabic but Sicily had taken over,” Joe explained. “Definitely improved Nicky’s Arabic since it was awful when we met.”

Nicky gave a smirk and said something in Arabic that Nile couldn’t understand, but was glad she didn’t because Joe gave him a hard elbow on the ribs and Andy scrunched her face. 

The safe house was an abandoned apartment building. Their long experience in squatting showed as they already had the place completely livable with electricity and central heating. 

The thing Nile liked most was the view of the ocean. Nicky and Joe had left to go shopping for dinner, saying Nicky was going to make whatever tat-tarja was. Nicky was the usual cook, and from what she could tell he was the best. Booker had told her Nicky had made their dinner on the first night she was with them. 

“Those two really love this country,” Nile said idly as she sat with Andy at the dinner table. 

She nodded. “Yeah. I think they have a lot of memories here after bumping around the Mediterranean for so long after meeting in Palestine. Maybe after they got to the part where they liked each other. It’s not easy to lie low since it’s so small but… it’s a nice place. I’m gonna assume they’re gonna take us to Gozo tomorrow.”

“Practically a family vacation then.”

Andy smiled a little. “We shouldn’t leave them alone too long. Next thing you know they’re going to get married again,” Andy said with a playful roll of her eyes.

She couldn’t hold back a smile. “Again?”

“They’d once joked they would get legally married in every country. I don’t think they were being serious but they’ve gotten legally married more than once.” She shrugged. “I think it just comes from not being able to do it for 900 years.”

“I’d bet.” She still hadn’t completely processed they’d been together for over 900 years. She hadn’t even had a girlfriend for over a year and somehow Nicky and Joe managed to last an unfathomable amount of time. Maybe that was part of being an unfathomable being. 

Nicky and Joe came back an hour later with several bags. They set them on the counter.

“Did you buy kinnie?” Andy asked with a grin.

Nicky sighed. “Yes, just for you.” He pulled out a bottle that looked like it was a carbonated drink. “This shit still has the worst aftertaste.”

Andy seemed to pay him no mind as she got a glass and ice, pouring herself a drink. 

Joe and Nicky continued to pack groceries away, pulling out some basic things as well as an assortment of meats. 

“We got gbejna, that Maltese sausage, and Maltese bread too so we can have it for lunch tomorrow,” Nicky said cheerily.”

“What’s…gbe…however it was pronounced?” Nile asked, peering at the stuff they’d bough.

“A type of cheese. It’s soaked in vinegar and has pepper on it. Goes good with a sausage the country makes.”

She nodded slowly. “You’re not going to trick me into eating rabbit, are you?” 

Joe snorted. “Don’t worry, he wouldn’t do that to you.”

“I don’t get why people are so against eating rabbit, it tastes like chicken,” Nicky said.

“I don’t think it has to do with the taste, sabiħ.”

Nicky just rolled his eyes in response. “I’m going to get started on dinner.”

“You do that,” Joe said and brushed his hand on Nicky’s lower back before putting away the last of the groceries, joining Andy in front of the TV. Nile smiled before before joining the two. 

Tat-tarja turned out to be an omelet like thing with spaghetti and garlic. It was, as promised, delicious. 

“You’re gonna have to make this stuff when we’re out of the country too,” Nile said to Nicky who smiled. 

“I try to. I know a lot of recipes and when we go to a certain country I usually focus on that country’s food.”

“Except England,” Joe said with a knowing smile.

“Well what does England have to offer? They can’t even cook vegetables properly.” 

Nile laughed. “Well, I like this stuff.” 

Andy took a sip of the kinnie drink with a snort. Nicky still refused to drink it and Nile did try it. She kind of liked the bittersweet taste even with the aftertaste. 

“Whats the plan for tomorrow?” Andy asked. 

“Maybe see more of the country. I think Nile would like to see temples,” Nicky turned his head to her. “Andy might remember them being built.”

Andy gave him a snarky look. “I am unfortunately older than those temples.”

Nile decided against asking how old Andy was again. “Yeah, sure. I’d like to see that.”

“As long as it keeps you two from getting married again,” Andy said.

“Oh don’t worry, we got married here 2017,” Joe said with a smile. 

Andy didn’t look surprised, she just muttered “of course you did”.

Nile looked at the couple. “How many times have you guys gotten married anyway?”

Nicky paused, like he was thinking. “Where have we been married, sabiħ?”

Joe beamed. “Here, the Netherlands, the UK, Australia, United States, France, Spain, Columbia, Germany, and Ireland. So far.”

She counted in her head and realised it was a perfect ten. 

Ten times married, just because they could. Damn.

“Wait, you guys seriously weren’t kidding about getting married in every country?” Andy looked at them with a genuinely surprised expression. 

Nicky grinned and snorted. “Would we ever joke about something like that, boss?”

“Yes.”

Joe grinned, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “Well, it is indeed our goal to get married in every country. But we’d be happy to stop after Italy and Tunisia. Even if Tunisia takes much longer.” He had a sad smile on his face after his last sentence. 

“And Palestine— we definitely have to get married in Palestine.” Nicky had his own sad smile on his face. Nile could guess why and her heart broke a little. 

Andy cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’m just surprised you didn’t tell me.”

“It was a last minute thing. We heard it had passed and left the next day. We lived here for a while in the thirteenth century to it felt like the right thing to do. Full circle and all.” He glanced at Joe, this time with a much happier small smile on his lips. 

“And the other times where I wasn’t there?”

Joe shrugged. “Sometimes we like to do things for ourselves. We got very used to each other for a couple of centuries you know.”

Andy made a fake gagging face and Nile laughed. “Make sure to invite me the next time you guys get married, I’d like to see it,” Nile said.

“The Netherlands was plenty enough for me. You guys can’t even give a straight answer to how long you’ve been together.”

Nile couldn’t help herself, she said; “That’s probably because there’s nothing straight about it.”

That got a laugh from the three of them. 

“It’s also much more fun to say ‘oh, feels like a thousand years’,” Nicky said with a grin. “And it will be in eighty years.”

Joe blew air through his lips. “Already? It feels like we’d finally agreed to stop killing each other yesterday.”

“No, you’re just ancient, Yusuf.”

“We are the exact same age, Nicolò.”

Andy rolled her eyes as the two continued to flirt with each other. “You finished? They can keep this up for hours.” 

She nodded and smiled at the thought that they still had that kind of love after over 900 years. “Yeah, sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sabiħ is the masculine form of "beautiful" in Maltese and I firmly believe Joe and Nicky call each other it even when not in Malta.


End file.
